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ChoiceTrade Review

I'm not sure how ChoiceTrade managed it, but they have managed to completely hide themselves from me. Despite being established back in 1999, I had not heard of them until recently.

Let's look at the fees

They caught my attention by offering a flat $5 per stock trade and 99c for options. This flat fee even applies to penny stocks as well.

After some investigation I managed to find out their is a whopping $30 surcharge for broker-assisted trades. This is a steep, but if you don't plan on phone trading, it won't be an issue.

I asked them about inactivity fees, they told me they don't have any. That's good to hear, because they really annoy me.

Account Minimum

ChoiceTrade have no account minimum for cash accounts, they do however have a $2,000 minimum for margin accounts.

Support

Support is offered by online live person chat, phone and email. I have tested out the phone and live person and they were always able to answer my questions adequately.

The Platform

This is where things get a little interesting. Most discount brokers just give you a platform to drive with at no cost. However, with choicetrade this is not the case. They have three platforms for you to choose from.

There's the basic platform, but it costs $14.95 a month. You do get this platform free for 4 months if you open your account with $2,000 or more.

There's the advanced platform that offers some more advanced charting and mobile charting. This costs $23.95. There's also the advanced platform with esignal included. This costs $126.

Esignal is a very comprehensive charting package that has been around for many years.

They do offer a free platform as well, but again it's very limited.

Awards

They have awarded a 4 star rating from Barrons for 5 years running. Quite impressive.

Conclusion

This broker caught my attention because of the low commissions. On the whole, I like Choicetrade. One thing i'm not keen on is the $14.95 a month they charge for their basic platform. This equates to the cost of three stock trades a month.

If you are going to make a lot of trades, then it probably won't make a big difference, but if you are a long term investor who doesn't make a large number of trades, this could have quite an affect on your trading costs.

Click here to join ChoiceTrade